Round Up the Usual Chechens

The Russian government says it knows who killed FORBES editor Paul Klebnikov. Others think it should keep looking.

In mid-June the Russian general prosecutors's office announced it had "completed" its investigation into the July 2004 contract murder of FORBES editor Paul Klebnikov in Moscow. Outsiders are not so sure that the true culprits have been found.

Klebnikov had been living in Moscow and editing FORBES RUSSIA, which he got off the ground in April of last year. No sooner was he gunned down by what appeared to be two assassins driving a stolen car than speculation opened up in the Russian press about who might have hired the killers. Candidates included wealthy Russians who were angry at the publication of their net worth in FORBES RUSSIA's first list of the country's billionaires; Boris Berezovsky, the tycoon who sued FORBES over an article Klebnikov wrote that Berezovsky said implicated him in a murder (he has denied any involvement in either murder); and a Chechen warlord named Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev, also the subject of Klebnikov's provocatively titled book Conversation With a Barbarian.

Russian authorities have settled on Nukhaev. They claim the Chechen militant hired four Chechen assassins to kill Klebnikov "since the journalist negatively spoke about Nukhaev in his book and criticized his pronouncements." The government currently has two Chechen suspects, Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhaev, in custody. It is searching for the two others, Magomed Edilsultanov and Magomed Dukuzov--as well as Nukhaev.

U.S. officials reacted cautiously. "We will be continuing our conversations with the Russian officials about what this announcement means," said State Department spokesman Steven Pike. An interagency group is reviewing Russia's findings.

Klebnikov's brother Michael appears mystified by the Nukhaev link. "Paul had reported that [he and Nukhaev] had a series of very civilized discussions.The initial reaction was not negative--Paul did not give an indication there was some displeasure on the part of the interviewee. If he changed his mind later, I don't know." Klebnikov wrote the book with Nukhaev's permission, and the Chechen used the word "barbarian" to describe himself in the book.

"This is an extraordinarily convenient accusation for the government to make," says Peter Reddaway, professor emeritus at George Washington University, who has testified before Congress about the Russian government. "It takes suspicion away from the government or a businessman associated one way or another with the government. If Nukhaev had been outraged, he would have taken action less than a year later. [Chechens] don't wait around if they've been insulted."

In conspiracy-loving Russia the press has suggested that the person who ordered the hit is a highly placed government official. Some reporters have speculated that Klebnikov, who often wrote investigative pieces, had been preparing to write a book about the misappropriation of funds meant for the reconstruction of Chechnya.

A trial probably won't happen for a few months. One small complication remains:Nukhaev hasn't been heard from in at least a year, and the Chechen press reports he may have been killed last spring--months before Klebnikov died.

Atask force of investigative journalists from various news organizations--ranging from Bloomberg to CBS' 60 Minutes--has formed to continue researching the case and other stories Klebnikov was working on at the time of his death. Richard Behar, a former Time Inc. reporter, says the group is pursuing five different threads. "Nukhaev is one of them," he says. "We want to see more evidence."